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Sacramento, California “bans the box”

Effective Jan. 1, 2017, private vendors and contractors with the city of Sacramento will no longer be permitted to include the check box that asks applicant’s to disclose prior criminal convictions on their job applications.

The “Ban the Box” rule will only apply during the initial hiring stages and employers will be permitted to inquire into applicant’s criminal backgrounds at a later point in the interview process.

The ordinance only applies to city contracts valued over $100,000 and provides an exemption for employees who are otherwise required by law to disclose criminal conviction history. The full text of the ordinance can be found here.

City officials have until the end of the year to write regulations to clarify how contractors can demonstrate they are following the new ordinance, according to the Sacramento Business Journal.

Sacramento becomes the latest of hundreds of cities to pass “Ban the Box” legislation. The state of California passed their own version of “Ban the Box” in 2014 that also prohibits public sector employers from asking job applicants about criminal convictions.